These are the stakes...

    While I'm not entirely surprised at the latest example of political fear-mongering on the part of Republicans--replete with images of Bin Laden and strategically highlighted quotes--I am surprised at just how closely the TV spot echoes perhaps the most famous campaign ad of all time.
    in 1964, Lyndon Johnson positioned himself as a dove, while making the already truculent opponent ("Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice"), Barry Goldwater look like Dr. Strangelove by comparison. A television ad featuring the heavy handed symbolism of an innocent girl counting flower petals to a nuclear countdown, ending in a mushroom cloud, was controversial at the time. http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uaf0a0

Why am I mentioning this? Spefically, because the final warnings of "These are the stakes" at the end of the both advertisements. Whether this was a deliberate evocacation of Johnson( which would be deliciiously ironic considering the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam), it does tell us something important about the american electorate: The only thing we have to fear is the use of fear as a weapon.